The Roman and Medieval Bridges Over the Sava and Klausenstein Tower at Zidani Most

Varstvo spomenikov 45 Andrej Gaspari The Roman and Medieval Bridges over the Sava and Klausenstein Tower at Zidani Most Keywords: Sava, Zidani Most, archaeology, bridges, castles, Roman era, Middle Ages, Babenberg Abstract The paper presents some hitherto unconsidered aspects of the important crossing of the Sava at Zidani Most, where the river was first traversed by a Roman bridge on the Celeia (Celje)–Neviodunum (Drnovo pri Krškem) road. In 1224 a stone bridge was built on the same site, allowing Duke Leopold VI, called the Glorious (1195–1230), to connect the Styrian and Carniolan possessions of the House of Babenberg. This bridge, which appears on coins from the Brežice mint, was probably demolished before the end of the 15th century. The first part of the paper attempts to define the structural characteristics and position of the two bridges over the Sava, on the basis of reports on the remains of foundations, site plans from before and after the implementation of measures to improve navigability in the first half of the 19th century, painted views, and a bathymetric survey of the riverbed dating from 2009. Particularly important is a plan from 1807, which shows, in addition to the presumed remains of the central pier of the old bridge in the Sava immediately above the confluence with the Savinja, the church of St Giles (Ægidius), built in the early 13th century. The second part of the paper includes a topographical/archaeological survey of the medieval tower-like fortification called Klausenstein, which was built on a crag above the present-day railway station in order to protect Duke Leopold’s bridge. Introduction In July 2009, as part of the preparatory phase of project planning for an assessment of the archaeological potential of the area of planned hydroelectric power plants on the central Sava, carried out by the ZVKDS Preventive Archaeology Centre and associates, an inspection was made of the location of the Roman and medieval bridges over the Sava and the Klausenstein fortification at Zidani Most (Fig. 1). Knowledge of the material traces of settlement and transport infrastructure in the narrow area of the confluence of the Sava and the Savinja in the more distant past is, for the most part, limited to data on a small number of chance finds, while no systematic field research has been carried out to date. The area’s character as a zone of passage is demonstrated by a collective find of bronze Dr Andrej Gaspari, Military Museum of the Slovenian Armed Forces, Maribor 25 Varstvo spomenikov 45 items (today lost), probably dating from the middle or late Bronze Age, discovered in the bed of the Sava during railway construction work just before the Second World War and subsequently taken into safe-keeping by an unknown railway engineer (Saria 1942, 93). The locality reached one of its peaks in the early period of the Roman Empire with the building of the bridge over the Sava as a key part of the road link between the administrative centres of southern Noricum (Celeia) and the westernmost part of the province of Pannonia (Neviodunum), which was probably established under Claudius, and the simultaneous construction of towpaths through the Sava gorge between Litija and Radeče (Gaspari 2009, 122–125). Topographical conditions and the line of the towpaths along the right bank of the Sava indicate the likelihood that the central part of the Roman settlement with its supposed navigation station was located in the environs of Trubarjev grič, which is where a nose of a relief oil lamp and a large bronze sewing needle were found (Vogrin 1986). Among the potential indicators of settlement of the limited available space along the northern access to the bridge are the find of a bronze coin (as) of Vitellius (AD 69; FMRSl I 322/3), which has not been more precisely localised, and a coin of Pupienus (AD 238), discovered by the Savinja between the former cement and oil factories (FMRSl I 322/4). A coin of Gallienus from the foundations of the bridge is proof that the structure was repaired in the last decades of the 3rd century, while conclusions could be made about the use of this route, or the passability of the bridge, even in the early 4th century (at least) on the basis of the youngest milestone from the archaeological site of Spodnje Gunte near Brestanica (Deschmann 1887, 85; cf. Petru 1982, 18). The discontinuation of maintenance of the road system in Late Antiquity and the Migration Period first affected key parts of transport infrastructure, such as sections of the roadway in the narrows below Laško (still problematic even today) and the bridge over the Sava, which was probably destroyed by water damage or as the result of a preventive military action. At that time alternative connections over the hills between Celje, Laško and the Krško Basin gained importance, but finds from elevated locations such as Stražnik above Veliko Širje, Svinjski Rt above Radeče and Kincl above Čelovnik indicate that traffic along the old route did not entirely die out (Ciglenečki 2008, Fig. 1). The strategic importance of the area was reflected once again with the construction of the medieval bridge, which coincides with a transformation in attitudes towards the road network as a response to the flowering of trade and transport over larger distances somewhere around the turn of the 13th century. The construction of the bridge over the Sava was ordered by Duke Leopold VI of Austria and Styria, known as the Glorious, in around 1222. When it was completed in 1224 he granted it privileges and an endowment for its maintenance (‘conferet singulares immunitates lapideo ponti quem supra Savum prope ecclesiam s. Egidii construxerat’). This remarkable example of medieval road infrastructure, which provided the House of Babenberg with a direct road connection between their Lower Styrian possessions and the important border area along the lower course of the river Krka in Lower Carniola (Kosi 1998, 185), is depicted on silver coins from the Salzburg mint in Brežice (Fig. 2), issued in the name of Duke Leopold and Archbishop Eberhard II at the completion of building (Fritsch 1971; Pogačnik 2008, Nos 143 and 144). 26 Varstvo spomenikov 45 Simultaneously with the bridge, or not long before it, the late Romanesque church of St Giles was built on the flat area between the right bank of the Savinja and the left bank of the Sava (Orožen 1881b, 413; Rybář 1976, 217; Zadnikar 1982, 395–397, Mlinarič 1991, 228–229). In 1226 Berthold of Andechs, Patriarch of Aquileia (1218–1251), freed the church from the authority of the parish of Laško and endowed it with an income for the upkeep of the hospice for travellers bound over the bridge (Mlinarič 1991, 228). The church’s connection with the river crossing is also indicated by the depiction of a deer on the commemorative coins mentioned above, despite the fact that the attribute of St Giles is the hind, which appears in almost all depictions of the saint. In the opinion of Wilhelm Fritsch, the substitution of a deer for a hind was nothing unusual in that period (Fritsch 1971). In the majority of historical sources the name of the church is directly connected with the bridge (‘de ponte’, ‘in ponte’, ‘ad Pontem’ ; Blaznik 1988, 539), while in a document from 1331 the church is mentioned as ‘Ecclesia sive Capella s. Egidii de Chlasenstein’. In order to protect the bridge, the tower-like fortification of Klausenstein was built on a crag on the steep southern ridge of Širski hrib, completing the spectacular view presented by medieval Zidani Most. It is first mentioned in the land register covering the years 1265–67, together with a tower called Freudenegg near Hrastnik, which is also believed to have been built to oversee Babenberg possessions along the Sava in the Savinja region and was administratively subject to Laško. Both castles were at that time under the protection of Theoderic (Dietrich) of Stang. In October 1279 King Rudolph pledged Laško and the castles pertaining to it, including Klausenstein (‘castrum Chlovsenstein’), to Count Ulrich von Heunburg, but in 1287 Rudolph’s son Duke Albert (Albrecht) I, managed to get them back. In the early 14th century the Laško estates passed into the hands of the Dukes of Carinthia. In around 1328 or 1329 Duke Henry of Carinthia pledged the castles of Žebnik, Freudenegg and Klausenstein to Peter of Liemberg, his banker. After the estates passed into Habsburg hands (1335), the castles of Laško, Klausenstein (vest Clawsenstein), Radeče and Freudenegg were pledged to Frederick of Sannegg. The castle, which is mentioned for the last time in 1338 (‘Warte pei Chlusenstain’, ‘dacz der Warte gelegen pei Chlausenstain’), is believed to have been demolished, along with the bridge, on the orders of the Counts of Cilli in their war against the Habsburgs in 1442 (Mlinar 1956, 70; Rybář 1976, 217, 228; Blaznik 1986, 342; Kos 2005, 277). The bridge was still standing in the first decades of the 15th century. This is confirmed by a mention in the report of the chaplain at the church of St Giles to Pope Martin V, written in around 1423, where it is referred to, no doubt inadvertently, as a bridge over the Savinja (‘prope pontem fluminis Sauune’). The strategic importance of the crossing is evident from the same report, since the chaplain complains that ‘armies frequently assemble there and wreak devastation’ (Mlinarič 1991, 228). It is not possible to affirm when the bridge was actually demolished, since the mentions of the church of St Giles (Blaznik 1988, 539) in the years 1457–61 (‘bey der gamaurtten Prucken’) and 1470 (‘S.

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